Seasonal Writings - Poetry Blog Numero Uno (Spring, The Widow's Lament in Springtime, Those Winter Sundays, and To Autumn)

For my first blog, I'm analyzing the poems Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Widow's Lament in Springtime by William Carlos Williams, Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, and To Autumn by John Keats. I really hope you are catching on to the pattern.

Using seasons in poems and other artistic works is particularly common, perhaps because our surroundings and environment contribute so much to our lives. Two of the poems, Spring and The Widow's Lament in Springtime have many similar images and meanings. They both praise creation and life through flowers and colors particularly. To Autumn also praises nature, but emphasizes what it has already given and how we should appreciate that, when the two former poems celebrate the beginning of new life (simply because of the two seasons). The differences between the two spring poems are that Spring holds religious symbolism - it compares spring to the garden of Eden before the fruit of knowledge was eaten. The Widow's Lament focuses on the contrast between the hope and life of spring and the woman's mourning of her husband.

The poem that differs most drastically from the other three is Those Winter Sundays. Initially, the season has no symbolic significance to the poem. However, winter does provide a backdrop needed for the mood and action throughout the poem.